PRIVATIZATION/ Reclamation plant helps lessen ocean discharges

Last summer, Honolulu opened the Honouliuli reclamation facility, which treats secondary effluent from wastewater treatment plants and stores the recycled water for irrigation and industrial uses. The $48 million project was completed in 20 months, thanks to a design/build/operate contract, and it is allowing the city to meet a pressing environmental mandate.

For years prior to the project, the city and county of Honolulu had discharged all wastewater effluent into the Pacific Ocean. However, by the late 1990s, a federal consent decree was issued, ordering the city to recycle 10 million gallons of effluent per day by July 2001. “Time was of the essence, as we were looking at steep fines and budget obligations to fulfill,” says Kenn Sprague, Honolulu’s director of environmental services.

Officials contemplated all aspects of a recycling operation. To get commitments from local industries to purchase the recycled water, the city would have to ensure that the product could meet strict quality and quantity requirements. Technology, infrastructure, economic development, population changes and pricing had to be considered.

In December 1998, Honolulu entered into a 20-year partnership with Palm Desert, Calif.-based USFilter, the company that would design, build, finance and operate the Honouliuli plant. By working with a private entity, the city streamlined procurement, lowered its costs, obtained performance guarantees and met its crucial deadlines.

“We’re saving our community tens of millions of dollars through the d/b/o approach,” Sprague says. “Had we stuck to traditional procurement, we would have been subsidizing up to $1.50 per thousand gallons due to the costs of development and production.”

The plant began operating last August, after it was purchased by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS). Designed to treat up to 13 million gallons of effluent per day, it generates two grades of water: R2, which is high in purity and sold to power and petro-refining companies, and less pure R1, which is sold to the city and local golf courses for irrigation. Effluent is treated through microfiltration and reverse osmosis to produce the R2 water, while the R1 product is the result of chemical treatment, sand filtration and ultraviolet disinfection. The recycled water is stored in on-site tanks.

Ultimately, the Honouliuli facility will reduce Honolulu’s ocean discharge by 4.3 billion gallons annually. (The city expects to be in compliance with the consent decree later this year.) Proceeds from the sale of the recycled water will go to the BWS. Additionally, by minimizing the use of potable water for non-potable purposes, the new plant will save the city at least 1 billion gallons of potable water each year.